


Lingua Animae (Language of the Soul)

by iamtheoneinthehole



Series: Animi, Animus et Anima [3]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-22
Updated: 2014-03-22
Packaged: 2018-01-16 13:16:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1348804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamtheoneinthehole/pseuds/iamtheoneinthehole
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompted by derseandprospitcollide; In Animi, Animus et Anima, while the boys record Lets Plays, what if they forget to talk out loud and then half the recording is silent because they're communicating via mind link? Or sometimes they start laughing in the middle of long silences because of stuff they hear through the link? I just love the idea of them not having to speak to each other out loud and it screws up work stuff. Think of the possibilities... Also this is more of a headcanon than a prompt, just wanted to share</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lingua Animae (Language of the Soul)

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so this headcanon is all kinds of beautiful so I had to write something for it. Thank you so much derseandprospitcollide!

Lindsay loved her boys, she really did.

They were a bright, colorful explosion of energy (the lads) accompanied by a slower sort of calm, that was no less bright but... perhaps a little less in your face at times (the gents) and she honestly felt that the Roosterteeth office wouldn’t have quite the same sort of charm to it without that explosive yet calm sort of chaos those boys tended to leave in their wake.

And as time had gone on, she’d honestly felt that she’d found her place amidst that chaos, to the point that she’d actually transferred over to Achievement Hunter to be around it more often. She found she almost thrived on it, the energy, the laughter, the fun. There was honestly never a dull moment when she was working with these idiots.

They were brilliant at times, complete dumbasses at others, lovable assholes almost always (though she’d never admit that part out loud because god knows those smug fuckers would never let her live it down if she did) and so obviously in love with each other that all you had to do was be in the room at the same time as two of them and you’d practically feel it coming off them in waves, sometimes not even two of them if they were using their mind bond…

And honestly? Lindsay could admit to feeling a little jealous of that mind bond sometimes. Of how easily they were able to use it to talk with each other. Apparently they’d been talking like that ever since they were kids, even when they’d been miles apart, whole countries even, they’d still been able to talk with one another and to hear each other clear as day. It was a rare gift. All soulmates could hear their other half, of course, but very few could actually talk to them. Her boys were the only people Lindsay knew who could do it, whereas she only got little snippets of her other half.

The occasional fragmented words, something that wasn’t quite a name but close enough to one that she’d know it when she heard it one day, and a song that they always seemed to hum to themselves when things got rough at their end. It was something, but not enough to be able to communicate with her other half and sometimes the thought of that drove her half made with impatience… But if hearing her boys’ story had taught her anything it was that eventually her patience would pay off and when that happened, it’d all be worth it…

Of course the mind bond did have its downsides too, something Lindsay had discovered pretty early on into her role as an Achievement Hunter. Because if the six people working on a video could all hear at each just as clearly in their heads as they could out loud? Well…

_A five minute long silence suddenly cut into by some, inexplicable, laughter… Then more silence. Then hysterical laughter again followed by a ‘that’s probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard’ and a few ‘Gavin noises’. Then more silence…_

Lindsay loved her boys, she really did, but if they gave her one more recording with audio like this, she might be forced to  _oh so lovingly_  throttle them for it.

For now though she just sighed, hunting down the actual usable footage that they’d given her and making a few snarky editing comments in the spaces where there was little to no audio at all. She’d been inspired a little by Kdin’s edits, from the last time he’d edited one of their videos, where he’d left the boys a few ‘subtle’ reminders (and a haiku) ‘gently’ reminding them to actually remember to speak out loud during videos) before saving her progress and making a mental note to herself to speak to Burnie about this later after she’d recorded some lines with Kara for RWBY.

Because as much as she loved her boys, this needed to stop for the sake of whatever little sanity she actually had left after taking this job.

——

_Alright attention assholes, it seems we have a problem._

_A problem Geoff?_

_Yeah a problem… because apparently Lindsay only had fifteen minutes of usable audio in that whole damn Let’s play we just recorded._

_…Again?_

_Fucking dammit._

_Hey, its still better than the ten we gave Kdin once._

_Genuinely thought he was gonna kill Rye-bread for that._

_Why me?_

_Because you were the one who lost your footage that week too._

_Hey, that’s not my fault._

_Whose is it then?_

_Well when in doubt, blame Gavin._

_Hey!_

_Try to stay on topic dumbasses, we can talk about blaming Gavin later._

A beat of silence then.

_Geoff you can’t see this right now but he’s pouting._

_And it’s fucking adorable._

A familiar rush of warmth and amusement passed through the spirit bond for a moment as Geoff tried to picture the Brit's expression and then...

_Now he’s pouting even more._

_I’m not bloody adorable._

_Aww, isn’t that the cutest thing._

_Shut it Rye-bread I’m not._

_Sorry Vav but you kind of are._

_Assholes, topic. Topic, assholes._

_The topic’s assholes?_

More amusement flooded through the bond as Geoff rolled his eyes.

_And this is why I never usually try to have serious conversations with you fuckers._

He could almost picture the smug, amused grins on their faces in response, even without being in the room with them right now.

_Okay fine, here’s your ‘serious conversation’… shouldn’t we just try to re-record the Let’s Play if Lindsay hasn’t got much to work with? Maybe that way she’ll have a bit more footage to use and if it doesn’t work? Well she’s not exactly expecting a lot from us anyway._

_Sounds like a plan Jack, AHWU will have to wait. I’ll be out of this meeting in ten so start getting stuff set up._

_Will do Geoff._

_See you in a bit assholes._

And with that he refocused his attention on the people in front of him, hoping he hadn’t tuned out anything too important since Burnie would almost definitely never let him live it down if he knew he’d been ignoring this ‘intervention’ regarding his mind bond because of… well said mind bond.

\----

“Okay soooo welcome to Achievement City everyone. Today we’re playing a game called-”

_Michael… what are you doing in kung fu house?_

_Um nothing… I’m nowhere near it now look, I was just taking a look to see how Edgar’s doing._

_...What have you done in there?_

_I told you its nothing… Ryan, Jack get out of here._

_Is that a door you’ve put in the hole?_

_No-_

_It is a door!… I’m going through the door._

_No Ryan, stay out of there._

_Jack fight him off, I need to see what they’ve done with… A beat and then a burst of amused laughter fell from Ryan’s lips._

_What is it?_

_They’ve built a Free Edgar getaway tunnel._

_...No way, okay I’ve got to see this. Aww Michael why?_

_Well there goes Jack... and my sword._

_Jack your sacrifice is appreciated._

_I wanna get a look at this now._

_No! No one has to see anything, there’s nothing to see here... Ray, I don’t currently have any weapons since I broke my sword on Jack but... I will hit you with this cake._

_No! Oh god no. Geoff cover me!_

_Michael, why did you let them see it._

_I didn’t! Ryan just followed me in here._

_Well you shouldn’t have bloody gone in there you pleb._

_I have to say, I am impressed by the levels you were willing to go to here to free Edgar… or not._  More amused laughter.

_What is it Ryan?_

_They’ve built him a hole in their Nice Dynamite tunnel._

_No fucking way… Michael what happened?_

_Fuck Edgar 2014 Geoff, that’s what happened._  More laughter and then.

_Hey guys?_

_Yeah Jack?_

_Was just checking the audio levels and either our mics are all busted or we’re doing it again._

_Goddammit!_

\----

“Okay… soooo welcome to Achievement City, this is absolutely the first time we’ve been here today.”

“What are we playing Geoff?”

“An excellent question Michael, we’re going to play a game I like to call… Clouds X. And before we get started, just to explicitly state in the rules that block breaking is not allowed.”

“And since its been explicitly stated this time, I’ll except that.”

_It was explicitly stated last time!_

_Where was it stated in the rules that you couldn’t break blocks, show me that piece of footage and I’ll admit I was wrong._

_We did!_

_At least twice._

_Does it matter?_

_Of course it matters!_

_Uh guys?_

_Yeah Ray?_

_We’re doing it again._

_Fucking dammit!_

\----

“Soooo attempt three, Lindsay we’re all very sorry that you’ll be editing this.”

“We tried.”

“We did. Anyway, this Let’s Play’s called Clouds X.”

“Have to say Geoff, I like the fact that there’s an X made out of clouds up there.”

“Thank you, it was Gavin’s idea. So what makes Clouds X harder than Clouds you might ask? For one, its longer.”

_No kidding, its at least twice as long._

_And twice as hard._

_Long and hard? Sounds like my kind of Let’s Play._

_Yeah Ray’s probably got this one in the bag._

_He is bloody top with things that are long and hard._  Some scattered laughter.

_Anyway for one its longer, for two we’ve added a few bows and arrows to these chests over here. Each of you gets one bow and five arrows. You may use them whenever you like, on whoever you like, but you can only fire them from this platform here. And once they’re gone, they’re gone._

_So we can’t make more?_

_No once you’ve used up your arrows, you hand in your bow._

_Got it._

_You all ready for Clouds X? Lllllet’s Play._

_Um Geoff?_

_…Tell me we didn’t just-_

A beat of silence.

“God-fucking-dammit!”

\----

It’d taken approximately six more failed attempts before the Achievement hunters had accepted defeat, logging out of the minecraft server and getting to work on this week’s AWHU which, thankfully, went a little better since Caleb was there to nudge one of them if they started talking through the mind bond (and maybe they should start having him, JJ, Lindsay and Kerry in more of their Let’s Plays to do that, maybe that way they’d end up with more usable footage at the end of the day). After that they’d headed over to Lindsay’s desk and had apologized with coffee and a promise that if they did this to her again next week, they’d edit the video for her. She’d seemed to forgive them pretty quickly after that (since she had so much work with RWBY right now, it was probably a relief to think that she’d probably have a little less editing on her plate next week and with the quality of the videos they were producing right now, they couldn’t exactly blame her for that).

It wasn’t as if any of them did it on purpose. It was just instinctual by this point to communicate through the bond. After all, they’d been voices in each other’s heads most of their lives; for some of them, as long as they could remember. They’d shared the mind bond for years whereas it’d only been months now since they’d all been able to speak to each other in person, to talk out loud and know that all of their bondmates could hear… and that certainly wasn’t a novelty that’d worn off but, all the same, it still did feel like a novelty which was why it was so easy to slip into the mind bond they were used to using.

Plus there was the incident with Gavin (that they’d all mostly put behind them now but none of them had ever really managed to forget... because how could you even begin to forget something like that?) which had resulted in the need to never close off their mind bond again, not matter the reason or timescale and even for work purposes (since shutting out the mind bond probably would’ve forced them to talk out loud). The mere thought of shutting each other out like that brought back far too many painful memories and so they’d all refused to even consider that option.

So inevitably, sometimes, they found themselves slipping back into their mind bond without really meaning to during videos and suddenly the audio would go silent except for occasional bursts of laughter that’d drive Lindsay, Kdin or whoever else was editing their videos that week up the walls with frustration.

But it wasn’t deliberate, it really wasn’t. There was just a safe sort of comforting warmth to the mind bond that coaxed them into it without them even realizing what was happening until they listened back to their audio later. A certain sort of underlying love that radiated in the words they ‘spoke’ there more than it ever could out loud.

Because the mind bond, essentially, reflected  _Lingua Animae_  or the ‘Language of the Soul’, their soul. The six halves that made up the whole that never felt more complete than when they were using that part of the bond. Because that language had a kind of intimacy to it that only they could ever truly understand because that language was  _theirs_ and  _theirs alone_. And at the end of the day, the intimacy of that was worth a little grovelling later to whoever was editing their videos that day.


End file.
